ORATION 


DELIVERED    BEFORE   THE 


CITY   COUNCIL   AND   CITIZENS 


BOSTON 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  TWENTIETH  ANNIVERSARY  OF  THE 
DECLARATION   OF   INDEPENDENCE 

JULY    4,    i896 


HON.  JOHN  F.  .FITZGERALD 


[DOCUMENT    50  —  1896] 


BOSTON 

PRINTED  BY  ORDER  OF  THE  CITY  COUNCIL 
1897 


0f 


IN  BOAKD  OF  ALDERMEN,  July  6,  1896. 
Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  the  City  Council  be,  and 
hereby  are,  extended  to  the  Hon.  JOHN  F.  FITZGERALD 
for  the  eloquent  and  patriotic  oration  delivered  by  him  on 
the  Fourth  of  July,  in  commemoration  of  the  One  Hun- 
dred and  Twentieth  Anniversary  of  American  Independence, 
and  that  he  be  requested  to  furnish  a  copy  of  the  said 
address  and  his  portrait,  for  publication. 

Adopted  unanimously  by  a  rising  vote.     Sent  down  for 

concurrence. 

JOHN  H.  LEE, 

Chairman. 

IN  COMMON  COUNCIL,  July  9,  1896. 

Concurred  unanimously. 

JOSEPH  A.  CONRY, 

President. 
Approved  July  13,  1896. 

JOSIAH   QUINCY, 

Mayor. 

A  true  copy. 

Attest : 

JOHN  M.  GALVIN, 

City  Clerk. 


ORATION. 

MR.  MAYOR  AND  FELLOW  CITIZENS: 

Faneuil  Hall  is  to-day  the  witness  of  the  city's  tribute 
to  the  immortal  scroll  which  proclaimed  the  independ- 
ence of  the  thirteen  colonies  and  changed  the  reign  of 
kings  and  queens  for  the  rule  of  the  common  people. 
Where  else  in  this  broad  land  is  more  hallowed  ground  ? 
Where  else  on  this  continent,  more  than  in  this  hall, 
can  the  pilgrim,  weary  and  heart- sore,  cease  his  tire- 
some journey  and  gather  anew  the  lost  fires  of  patriotic 
zeal?  No  place  in  the  United  States  is  richer  in  his- 
toric association  and  surroundings,  and  no  spot  should 
be  held  in  deeper  reverence  than  the  Cradle  of  Liberty, 
within  whose  walls  was  first  whispered  the  irrevocable 
word,  "Independence." 

Last  year,  through  the  medium  of  two  large  conven- 
tions, Boston  was  the  Mecca  of  thousands  of  visitors 
from  all  parts  of  the  country — nay,  I  might  say  from 
all  parts  of  the  world.  The  gates  of  the  city  were 
thrown  wide  open,  our  latchstrings  were  unstrung, 
and  boundless  hospitality  was  lavished  on  our  visit- 
ing friends  on  every  hand.  Both  the  State  and  the 
city  vied  in  their  efforts  to  make  the  occasion  a  memo- 
rable one,  and  each  citizen,  in  his  own  humble  way, 
extended  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  to  the  noble  band 


6  ORATION. 

of  Christian  workers  who  gathered  here  in  July,  and 
again  in  the  following  month  to  the  gallant  array  of 
Knights  Templar. 

We  all  felt  proud  that  our  grand  old  city  had  been 
thus  honored,  and  from  public  buildings  and  private 
residences  alike  the  stars  and  stripes,  Old  Glory  waved 
in  the  breeze  in  glad  welcome  to  the  countless  throng. 
Every  one  here  who  was  in  the  city  at  that  time  saw 
them  by  the  thousand,  walking  through  our  busy 
streets,  taking  possession  completely  of  our  narrow  side- 
walks, driving  us  good-naturedly  to  the  pavement,  and 
you  can  all  bear  witness  to  the  happiness  depicted  on 
their  faces  that  they  were  privileged  to  walk  through 
the  historic  streets  of  Boston  town. 

Reverentially  and  with  bared  heads  they  visited  the 
graves  of  the  illustrious  dead  in  the  King's  Chapel  and 
Granary  burying-ground,  thrown  open,  I  believe,  for 
the  first  time  in  years,  and  traced  on  their  copy  books 
the  inscriptions  from  the  headstones.  As  they  gazed 
about  in  silence  and  wonder  on  the  graves  of  these  old 
revolutionary  heroes,  they  might  well  have  exclaimed, 
in  the  beautiful  lines  of  Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich  — 

"Rich  is  the  land,  O  death,  that  gives  you  dead  like  our  dead." 

They  crowded  the  Old  South  Church  and  the  Old 
State  House,  both  abounding  in  relics  of  revolutionary 
•days,  and  went  down  into  the  old  North  end  and  gazed 
with  wonder  and  with  bated  breath  upon  the  tower 
from  whose  steeple  swung  the  lantern  of  Paul  Revere 


FOURTH  OF  JULY,  1896.  7 

on  the  18th  of  April,  1775.  They  went  over  to 
Charlestown  and  stood  under  the  shadow  of  the  tall 
granite  shaft  of  Bunker  Hill,  and  breathed  fresh  inspi- 
ration on  the  ground  where  Warren  fell. 

There  was,  however,  one  place  dearer  to  them  than  all 
the  rest ;  one  spot  more  holy  and  inspiring,  old  Faneuil 
Hall,  within  whose  sacred  precincts  we  are  assembled  to- 
day. They  had  read  in  their  history  that  Faneuil  Hall 
played  a  more  important  role  during  the  Revolution 
than  any  other  spot  in  the  land,  and  they  were  anxious 
to  pay  homage  to  the  grand  old  structure.  Massachu- 
setts was  the  ring-leading  colony,  and  as  Massachusetts 
led  the  thirteen  colonies,  so  the  town  of  Boston  led 
Massachusetts,  and  Boston  always  spoke  from  Faneuil 
Hall.  It  may  justly  be  said  of  the  town  meetings  held 
in  this  hall,  "Sentire  quae  volunt  et  quae  sentiunt 
dicere  licet."  They  think  as  they  please  and  speak  as 
they  think. 

Those  were  the  sentiments  that  guided  the  town  in 
mass  meetings  assembled,  where  every  man  gave  free 
expression  to  his  views,  and  the  ideas  there  proclaimed 
were  afterward  incorporated  in  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence. An  English  writer  of  that  same  period, 
speaking  of  the  town  meetings  in  Faneuil  Hall,  said : 

"  The  town  meeting  at  Boston  is  the  hot-bed  of  sedi- 
tion. It  is  there  that  all  their  dangerous  insinuations 
are  engendered;  it  is  there  that  the  flame  of  discord 
and  rebellion  was  first  lighted  up  and  disseminated  over 
the  provinces ;  it  is  therefore  greatly  to  be  wished  that 


8  ORATION. 

Parliament  may  rescue  the  loyal  inhabitants  of  that 
town  and  province  from  the  merciless  hand  of  an  igno- 
rant mob,  led  on  and  inflamed  by  self-interested  and 
profligate  men." 

Here  in  town  meeting,  Otis  thundered  from  out  his 
stormy  soul  and  roused  the  hearts  of  his  hearers  to 
resistance  with  his  impetuous  eloquence,  breathing  into 
this  nation,  as  it  were,  the  breath  of  life,  and  first  giv- 
ing to  the  world  the  grand  axiom  that  taxation  without 
representation  was  tyranny.  James  Otis  was  the  head 
and  front  of  the  opposition  to  the  arbitrary  writs  of  as- 
sistance, and  time  and  time  again  in  this  old  hall  did 
he  lend  all  the  eloquence  at  his  command  in  opposition 
to  these  measures.  John  Adams  in  speaking  of  him 
said  : 

"  Otis  was  a  flame  of  fire.  With  a  promptitude  of 
classical  allusions,  a  depth  of  research,  a  rapid  sum- 
mary of  historical  events  and  dates,  a  profusion  of  legal 
authorities,  a  prophetic  glance  of  his  eye  into  futurity 
and  a  torrent  of  impetuous  eloquence,  he  hurried  away 
everything  before  him.  Every  man  of  a  crowded 
audience  appeared  to  me  to  go  away  as  I  did,  ready  to 
take  arms  against  writs  of  assistance.  Then  and  there 
was  the  first  scene  of  the  first  act  of  opposition  to  the 
arbitrary  claims  of  Great  Britain." 

Here,  also,  within  these  walls  rang  out  alike  a 
clarion  note  in  advocacy  of  armed  resistance  the  voice 
of  John  Hancock,  who  afterward,  though  proscribed 
and  threatened  with  death,  affixed  his  signature  to  the 


FOURTH  OF  JULY,  1896.  9 

Declaration  of  Independence;  of  Josiah  Quincy,  the 
illustrious  kinsman  of  our  present  mayor;  of  Paul 
Revere  and  of  Joseph  Warren.  One  man,  however, 
greater  than  all  the  rest,  has  his  name  inseparably  con- 
nected with  the  scenes  that  transpired  in  this  hall  in 
the  revolutionary  days.  His  was  the  master-hand 
among  the  patriots,  the  Palinurus,  the  morning-star, 
the  father  of  the  revolution.  He  it  was  who  animated, 
enlightened,  fortified  and  roused  the  admiring  throng. 
"He  was,"  as  John  Adams  so  well  said,  "born  and 
tempered  a  wedge  of  steel  to  split  the  knot  of  lignum 
vitae  that  tied  America  to  England."  Such  a  man  was 
Sam  Adams. 

The  zeal  and  devotion  of  this  great  soul  was  some- 
thing tremendous.  If  not  in  the  town  meeting,  then 
through  the  medium  of  the  newspaper  he  would  un- 
bosom his  patriotic  spirit,  and  it  was  a  common  occur- 
rence to  see  him  haranguing  his  fellow-townsmen, 
sitting  side  by  side  with  some  ship  carpenter  on  a  block 
of  oak,  just  above  the  tide,  or  with  a  shopkeeper  in  a 
fence  corner,  sheltered  from  the  wind.  His  case  is 
without  parallel  as  an  example  of  devotion  to  the  public 
weal.  The  pittance  he  received  as  a  public  servant 
hardly  supplied  him  with  food,  and  he  was  dependent 
on  the  kindly  aid  of  friends  to  furnish  him  with  proper 
clothing,  and  yet,  according  to  the  testimony  of  his  bit- 
terest opponents,  he  was  absolutely  incorruptible. 

He  was  essentially  a  man  of  the  people,  and  his  daily 
associates  were  mechanics  and  laborers.  His  compara- 


10  ORATION. 

tive  poverty,  his  plainness  of  manner  and  dress,  his 
utter  disregard  for  ceremony  and  display,  made  him  the 
idol  of  the  masses.  He  was  an  ardent  advocate  of 
short  terms  of  office,  and  felt  that  power  must  ever 
return  speedily  to  the  people  who  gave  it,  so  that  the 
representatives  might  recognize  the  fact  that  they  were 
the  creatures,  not  the  masters,  of  their  constituents. 

He  towered  in  majesty  and  in  influence  above  all  his 
associates.  "  I  am  the  State,"  said  Louis  XIV.,  but  his 
line  ended  in  the  grave  of  absolutism.  "  Forty  cent- 
uries look  down  upon  you,"  was  the  address  of  Napoleon 
to  his  army  in  the  shadow  of  the  pyramids ;  yet  his 
soldiers  saw  the  dream  of  eastern  empire  vanish  in 
blood.  But  Adams,  pouring  into  the  ear  of  every  citi- 
zen his  burning  words,  "Resistance  to  oppression  and 
tyranny,"  stated  the  keynote  of  representative  obliga- 
tion, and  propounded  the  fundamental  principle  of 
constitutional  government. 

With  a  wisdom  inspired  of  the  Almighty,  he  began 
in  this  hall  by  blending,  yet  preserving,  local  self-gov- 
ernment with  national  authority,  and  the  rights  of  the 
State  with  the  majesty  of  the  republic.  The  appeals  of 
Demosthenes  to  the  Athenian  democracy,  the  fierce  in- 
vective of  Cicero  against  the  wickedness  of  Catiline, 
the  tremendous  outburst  of  Mirabeau  during  the  French 
Revolution,  the  pleadings  of  Chatham  in  the  British  Par- 
liament, yielded  feeble  results  compared  with  the 
tremendous  consequences  of  the  utterance  of  Sam 
Adams  hi  town  meeting  here. 


FOURTH  OF  JULY,  1896.  11 

I  do  not  think  I  go  beyond  the  bounds  of  truth  when 
I  say  that  without  Sam  Adams  and  the  town  meeting 
independence  would  never  have  been  thought  of,  and 
the  union  of  the  thirteen  states  would  have  been  an 
impossibility. 

John  Fiske,  our  eminent  historian,  in  speaking  of 
this  remarkable  person  said :  "  A  man  whom  Plutarch, 
if  he  had  only  lived  late  enough,  would  have  delighted 
to  include  in  his  gallery  of  worthies ;  a  man  who,  in  the 
history  of  the  American  revolution,  is  second  only  to 
Washington."  Is  it  to  be  wondered  at,  then,  that  our 
visitors  of  last  year  crowded  this  sacred  edifice  and 
stood  enthralled  within  its  mighty  presence?  Can  we 
afford  to  be  less  appreciative  than  they  ?  It  is  the  sum 
of  all  experience  and  teaching  that  human  thoughts 
and  actions  are  more  or  less  influenced  by  environment. 

Sacred  and  historic  spots  are  bound  to  kindle  anew 
patriotic  fire  and  devotion.  It  is  impossible  for  any 
American  to  visit  this  hall  and  not  go  away  a  better 
citizen  and  firmer  patriot.  Therefore,  I  think  it  is  a 
wise  and  happy  thought  that  brings  us  together  to-day 
in  this  old  hall,  in  town  meeting,  as  it  were,  to  cele- 
brate the  nation's  birthday  and  pledge  anew  our  loyalty 
to  her  institutions  and  her  laws. 

One  week  ago  I  wandered  down  into  this  old  hall  to 
gaze  on  the  paintings  of  Massachusetts'  illustrious  sons, 
and  to  commune  for  a  while  in  their  majestic  presence. 
It  so  happened  on  my  journey  hither  that  my  eye  was 
gladdened  by  the  sight  of  hundreds  of  school  children 


12  ORATION. 

on  their  way  to  the  school  festival  in  Mechanics  Hall. 
A  great  many  of  them  I  knew  by  name,  coming  as  they 
did  from  my  own  part  of  the  city,  and  I  noted  in  the 
happy  throng  the  child  of  the  American,  of  the  Irish- 
man, of  the  Jew,  of  the  Italian  and  of  the  Swede. 

Marking  the  varied  race  characteristics,  I  was  led  to 
ask  myself,  Which  of  these  belong  to  the  "beaten 
races,"  the  phrase  so  often  used  nowadays  by  those  op- 
posed to  immigration.  Surely  none  of  these  seemed 
beaten ;  all  was  energy  and  hope  and  joy,  typical  of  our 
young  nation's  future.  I  made  up  my  mind,  uncertain 
until  that  moment,  that  I  could  not  do  my  country  a 
better  service  than  to  devote  part  of  my  time  to-day  to 
answering  some  of  the  statements  that  have  been  so 
frequently  made  of  late  against  the  foreigner  and  his 
descendants. 

A  further  incentive  to  this  line  of  thought  was  given 
me  when  I,  a  few  short  moments  afterwards,  entered 
this  hall  and  gazed  on  the  noble  face  of  our  martyred 
President  Lincoln,  who,  in  the  fulness  of  his  mighty 
heart,  feared  not  to  admit  to  equal  rights  and  privileges 
4,000,000  of  that  long  crushed,  but  undying,  negro 
race.  I  thought  of  the  words  of  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence, "that  all  men  are  created  free  and  equal, 
and  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  inalien- 
able rights,  among  which  is  the  right  to  life,  liberty  and 
the  pursuit  of  happiness,"  and  as  these  words  flitted 
through  my  mind  my  eye  wandered  along  the  wall 
until  arrested  by  the  painting  of  one  of  God's  noblemen, 
Wendell  Phillips. 


FOURTH  OF  JULY,  1896.  13 

I  could  see  him  standing  upon  this  platform,  in  the 
face  of  an  angry  mob,  a  young  man,  unknown  to  fame, 
with  Boston's  best  blood  coursing  through  his  veins, 
and  the  best  culture  of  Harvard  in  his  brain,  with  a 
tongue  set  aflame  by  just  indignation,  replying  to  the 
attorney-general  of  the  Commonwealth,  who  was  speak- 
ing in  defence  of  the  murder  of  Love  joy,  and  I  heard 
these  remarkable  words  fall  from  his  lips : 

"  Sir,  when  I  heard  the  gentleman  lay  down  princi- 
ples which  place  the  murderers  of  Alton  side  by  side 
with  Otis  and  Hancock,  with  Quincy  and  Adams,  I 
thought  those  pictured  lips  would  have  broken  into 
voice,  to  rebuke  the  recreant  American — the  slanderer 
of  the  dead."  Following  to  the  end  this  remarkable 
utterance  I  find  it  closing  with  these  burning  words : 

"  When  liberty  was  in  danger,  Faneuil  Hall  had  the 
right,  and  it  was  her  duty,  to  strike  the  keynote  for  the 
Union." 

What  nobler  thought  then,  to-day,  than  to  defend  the 
down-trodden  and  oppressed  of  every  land  in  Faneuil 
Hall.  They  have  come  here  from  every  clime,  the 
strong,  the  vigorous  and  the  healthful,  willing  toilers, 
to  carve  with  their  own  hand  and  to  mould  in  their 
own  fashion  the  way  to  fortune  and  to  favor  in  this  the 
land  of  their  adoption.  They  no  sooner  land  upon  our 
shores  than  they  respond  in  every  way  to  the  grand 
vital  principles  and  requirements  of  the  nation,  and 
readily  assimilate  themselves  to  all  that  is  good  and 
patriotic  among  our  citizens. 


14  OEATION. 

It  would  not  have  been  possible,  without  the  assist- 
ance of  the  honest  and  hard-working  laborer  from  the 
old  country,  to  construct  the  thousand  of  miles  of  rail- 
road that  annihilate  distance  in  this  country  today, 
and  bring  the  remotest  parts  of  the  nation  in  close 
communication  with  each  other.  The  traffic  and  com- 
merce developed  by  these  roads  could  not  have  sprung 
up,  and  the  magnificent  cities  and  villages  that  now 
adorn  our  western  frontier  would  never  have  had  an 
existence. 

An  agitation  of  similar  character  to  the  present  one 
sprung  up  about  the  year  1850,  directed  at  that  time 
against  the  Irish,  as  the  present  agitation  is  directed 
against  the  Italian,  the  Austrian,  and  the  Jew. 

Since  that  period  more  than  13,000,000  of  people 
have  landed  upon  our  shores,  and  the  progress  of  the 
nation  during  that  period  has  been  marvellous.  The 
history  of  the  country  during  the  past  half-century 
furnishes  statistics  more  eloquent  than  words  of  the 
great  value  immigration  has  been  to  this  land.  Wages 
were  higher,  the  mechanic  and  laboring  man  had  more 
steady  employment,  and  happiness  and  prosperity  was 
universal  throughout  the  country.  During  these  years 
if  the  increase  of  population  depended  upon  the  surplus 
of  persons  born  and  growing  to  manhood's  estate  over 
those  dying,  our  population,  instead  of  being  70,000,000, 
would  have  been  nearer  40,000,000. 

The  increase  of  our  population  is  a  blessing  rather 
than  a  menace,  and  every  other  nation  on  the  face  of  the 


FOURTH  OF  JULY,  1896.        15 

globe  encourages  rather  than  retards  this  movement  to- 
day. It  is  a  source  of  great  joy  and  pleasure  to  Ger- 
many that  her  population  has  increased  within  the  last 
five  years  from  49,000,000  to  52,000,000,  and  France, 
in  order  to  increase  her  numbers,  has  put  a  premium  on 
fecundity  by  granting  an  exemption  from  taxation  to 
fathers  who  have  a  certain  number  of  children.  We 
have  all  been  witnesses  of  the  great  rivalry  between  the 
cities  of  New  York  and  Chicago  in  regard  to  population, 
and  we  know  of  the  great  joy  among  the  inhabitants 
of  these  cities  when  the  increase  was  large  and  whole- 
some. 

In  the  West  and  South  to-day,  there  are  more  than 
700,000,000  acres  of  unoccupied  land.  Dividing  this 
territory  into  150  acres  a  piece,  we  have  4,375,000 
homesteads.  If  occupied,  and  allowing  five  to  a  family, 
we  would  have  nearly  25,000,000  more  mouths  to  feed 
and  bodies  to  clothe.  What  a  tremendous  increase  in 
the  consumption  of  groceries,  of  farming  implements, 
of  manufactured  goods  of  every  description,  and  what 
tremendous  prosperity  would  prevail  in  every  part  of 
our  land.  Every  loom  in  every  cotton  and  woollen  mill 
in  the  East  would  be  set  in  motion,  and  every  factory 
and  every  workshop  would  thrive  with  the  hum  of  re- 
newed industry. 

The  test  proposed  at  the  present  time  forbids  the 
coming  into  the  country  of  all  persons  between  the  ages 
of  fourteen  and  sixty  who  are  unable  to  read  and  write 
in  their  own  or  the  English  language.  In  the  figures 


16  ORATION. 

prepared  by  the  immigration  league,  showing  the  per- 
centage of  illiterates  that  land  upon  our  shores,  the 
Portuguese  have  the  largest  number,  67.35  per  cent 
being  unable  to  read  and  write.  Nothing  could  have 
proven  to  my  mind  the  utter  fallaciousness  of  this  test 
more  than  these  figures.  I  have  been  in  a  position  all 
my  life  to  note  the  racial  characteristics  of  the  Portu- 
guese, and  I  cheerfully  testify  to  their  worth  and  value 
as  American  citizens.  There  is  no  class  of  people  in 
our  country  more  sober,  more  hard-working,  more  honest 
and  more  industrious  than  the  Portuguese,  and  the 
United  States  is  better  off  to-day  because  of  the  thou- 
sands of  that  race  who  have  made  this  country  their 
home. 

The  existing  law  prohibiting  all  idiots,  insane  per- 
sons, paupers  or  persons  likely  to  become  a  public  charge, 
persons  suffering  from  loathsome  or  dangerous  diseases, 
persons  who  have  been  convicted  of  felony  or  other  in- 
famous crime,  a  misdemeanor  involving  moral  turpitude, 
or  any  person  whose  ticket  or  passage  is  paid  by  the 
money  of  another,  or  who  is  assisted  by  others  to  come, 
if  properly  enforced,  seems  to  me  sufficiently  strong. 
Where  would  this  country  be  to-day  if  immigration  laws 
were  in  force  at  the  time  John  Ericsson  and  the  mother 
of  Phil  Sheridan  came  to  this  country  ? 

The  test  proposed  under  the  new  law  is  the  same  as 
is  now  required  by  the  laws  of  Massachusetts  for  all 
voters,  the  reading  and  writing  of  five  lines  of  the  con- 
stitution of  the  United  States,  except  that  the  immi- 


FOUKTH  OF  JULY,  1896.        17 

grant  can  read  or  write  these  lines  in  his  own  language, 
and  I  think  the  Board  of  Election  Commissioners  who 
are  now  engaged  in  the  work  of  registering  all  voters 
in  the  city  of  Boston  could  give  ample  evidence  from, 
their  experience  that  there  are  hundreds  of  good  men 
in  Boston  to-day  unable  to  read  and  to  write  properly 
five  lines  of  the  constitution  of  the  United  States. 

What  will  be  the  result  if  the  test  of  illiteracy  is  put 
into  force?  The  strong,  willing  laborer  who  is  unlet- 
tered and  untaught,  whose  strong  and  sturdy  right  arm 
and  honest  heart  we  are  in  need  of  will  be  driven  back, 
and  in  his  place  will  come  the  immigrant  with  too  much 
education,  the  Communist,  the  Socialist,  the  Anarchist, 
who  labor  with  their  tongues  and  disseminate  strife  and 
discord  and  discontent  among  the  laboring  men.  The 
commissioner  of  immigration  in  his  report  says :  "  We 
know  of  no  immigrant  landed  within  a  year  who  is  now 
a  burden  upon  any  public  or  private  institution.  The 
class  of  immigrants  have  been  of  a  good,  healthy  and 
hardy  character,  well  qualified  to  earn  a  livelihood 
wherever  their  services  were  required.  They  comprised 
both  skilled  and  unskilled  laborers." 

The  report  also  says :  "  The  money  we  know  they 
actually  brought  with  them  amounted  to  $4,126,723, 
but,  as  the  immigrant  is  only  required  to  satisfy  the  in- 
spector as  to  the  amount  when  under  $30,  I  think  it  is 
safe  to  say  that  the  amount  of  money  brought  into  this 
country  last  year  amounted  to  many  millions  more. 
This  amount,  while  small  in  comparison  with  the 


18 


ORATION. 


magnificent  wealth  of  this  country,  yet,  taken  in  con- 
nection with  the  zeal  and  enthusiastic  labor  of  the 
immigrant  that  has  changed  the  face  of  this  continent 
within  the  last  half  century,  turning  deserts  into  green 
fields  and  forests  into  thriving  towns  and  villages,  has 
contributed  more  to  the  sum  of  human  happiness  in 
this  country  than  the  millions  of  the  bonanza  kings 
wrung  from  the  hard  earnings  of  the  American  people, 
and  sent  across  the  water  to  support  a  paupered  no- 
bility to  live  lives  of  luxurious  ease  in  London  and 
on  the  continent.  Legislation  is  more  necessary  to 
my  mind  to  prevent  the  outflow  of  American  millions 
for  pampered  foreign  aristocracy  than  for  the  stoppage 
of  pure,  honest  and  wholesome  immigration. 

Those  who  object  to  immigration  cannot  do  so  on  the 
ground  that  the  country  is  not  large  enough,  for  the 
census  of  1890  shows  : 


COUNTRIES. 

Square  Miles. 

Inhabitants. 

Inhabitants 
per 
Square  Mile. 

United  States  

3  602,990 

62  622,256 

17 

Europe       

3,555,000 

380,200,000 

107 

Germany  

211,108 

49,421,064 

235 

11,373 

6,060,043 

530 

If  the  United  States  was  populated  to-day  as  densely 
as  Belgium,  one  of  the  most  prosperous  countries  in 
Europe,  we  could  support  1,500,000,000  people,  or 
100,000,000  more  people  than  are  contained  in  the 


FOUETH  OF  JULY,  1896.        19 

whole  earth  to-day,  and  yet,  with  a  ratio  at  the  most  of 
twenty  inhabitants  to  the  square  mile,  against  over  five 
hundred  for  some  of  the  most  prosperous  nations  of 
Europe,  we  are  seriously  thinking  of  closing  our  gates 
to  honest  and  remunerative  labor. 

Mr.  Gompers,  one  of  the  recognized  heads  of  labor  in 
this  country,  speaking  of  the  immigration  question, 
said :  "  While,  in  my  opinion,  it  may  be  necessary  to 
restrict  immigration  in  some  form,  American  working- 
men  are  reluctant  to  impose  any  restraint  upon  the 
natural  right  of  a  man  to  choose  his  own  place  of 
abode."  And  President  Eliot  of  Harvard,  speaking 
on  the  same  subject,  said :  "I  believe  every  healthy 
and  honest  man  or  child  brought  into  this  country  to  be 
an  altogether  desirable  addition  to  the  resources  of  the 
United  States.  Consequently,  I  think  that  immigra- 
tion should  not  be  restricted,  except  by  rules  intended 
to  keep  out  paupers,  criminals,  and  persons  with  incu- 
rable or  dangerous  diseases.  More  laborers,  skilled  and 
unskilled,  are  just  what  this  half -unoccupied  continent 
wants." 

To  show  how  the  labor  of  this  country  has  been  bene- 
fited during  the  years  of  our  greatest  immigration,  I 
wish  to  adduce  some  figures  taken  from  the  Senate  re- 
port of  1893,  on  prices,  transportation  and  wages.  The 
table  of  wages  in  leading  occupations  is  given,  every 
tenth  year  for  some  time  before  the  war,  in  comparison 
with  the  wages  paid  a  quarter  of  a  century  later : 


20 


ORATION. 


Occupation  (per  diem). 

1840. 

1850. 

1860. 

1890. 

Plasterers  

$1  50 

$1  75 

$1  75 

$3  50 

1  50 

1  50 

1  50 

3  00 

Blacksmiths'  helpers  

83| 

83-J- 

83| 

1  75 

Painters  

1  25 

1  25 

1  25 

2  50 

Wheelwrights  

1  25 

1  25 

1  25 

2  50 

Carpenters  ....... 

1  29 

1  41 

1  52 

1  94 

Engineers  

2  00 

2  25 

3  00 

4  25 

Firemen  

1  25 

1  37 

1  44 

1  65 

Laborers  

81 

1  04 

99 

1  25 

Machinists  

1  45 

1  55 

1  76 

2  19 

Watchmen  

1  10 

1  00 

1  00 

1  55 

Eailroads  (per  diem). 

1840. 

1850. 

1860. 

1890. 

Baggagemen  

$1  53 

$1  53 

$1  91 

§2  11 

Brakemen  (freight)  

1  00 

1  00 

1  16 

1  85 

Brakemen  (passenger)  

1  15 

1  15 

1  25 

2  00 

Carpenters  

1  22 

1  33 

1  30 

2  00 

Conductors  (freight)  

1  66 

1  68 

1  61 

2  57 

Conductors  (passenger)  
Engineers  (locomotive  )  
Firemen  (  locomotive  )  

2  11 
2  14 
1  06 

2  30 

2  15 
1  15 

3  19 
2  30 
2  00 

3  84 
3  79 
2  00 

Foremen,  masons  

2  50 

2  50 

2  50 

4  10 

Painters  

1  50 

1  43 

1  32 

2  17 

Average  

87.7 

92.7 

100 

168.6 

FOUKTH  OF  JULY,  1896.        21 

It  is  fashionable  to-day  to  cry  out  against  the  immi- 
gration of  the  Hungarian,  the  Italian  and  the  Jew,  but 
I  think  that  the  man  who  comes  to  this  country  for  the 
first  time,  to  a  strange  land,  without  friends  and  without 
employment,  is  born  of  the  stuff  that  is  bound  to  make 
good  citizens.  I  have  stood  on  the  docks  in  East  Boston 
and  watched  the  newly-arrived  immigrant  gaze  for  the 
first  time  on  this  free  land  of  ours.  I  have  seen  the 
little  ones  huddle  around  the  father  and  the  mother,  and 
look  with  amazement  on  their  new  surroundings.  The 
family  were  in  a  new  country ;  they  had  forsaken  the 
pleasures  and  memories  of  their  native  land,  and  had  left 
behind  them  home  and  friends,  to  earn  a  livelihood  in 
this  great  empire  of  the  West. 

What  hardships  and  what  struggles  awaited  them,  God 
only  knew,  but  I  said  in  my  heart  on  many  an  occasion, 
"  May  the  Almighty  guide  them  to  their  new  homes  and 
bless  them  with  prosperity  and  happiness  in  this  land 
of  plenty."  Niagara  Falls  has  been  the  wonder  and 
amazement  of  the  entire  world  during  the  past  century. 
Its  tremendous  force  and  power  have  been  a  marvel  for 
years,  and  how  best  to  use  its  terrific  possibilities  was 
unanswered  until  a  short  time  ago,  when  the  genius  of 
a  Hungarian  immigrant,  Nicola  Tesla,  gave  the  secret 
to  the  world,  thereby  proclaiming  to  the  universe  that 
the  Huns,  in  former  days  one  of  the  most  powerful 
nations  on  the  globe,  were  in  the  front  rank  in  intelli- 
gence, industry  and  civilization. 

Columbus,  the  great  Italian  navigator,  the  grand  dis- 
coverer of  America's  shore,  is  too  closely  woven  with 


22  ORATION. 

our  history  to  have  us  suppose  for  a  moment  that  any 
of  his  kin,  honest  and  industrious,  should  be  driven 
beyond  our  gates.  Italy  has  always  had  a  tender  spot 
in  the  heart  of  every  true  American,  and  even  to-day 
the  education  of  our  scholars  in  painting,  sculpture,  lit- 
erature and  the  arts  is  incomplete  without  a  visit  to  that 
glorious  clime.  It  does  not  seem  possible  that  the  blood 
that  flowed  through  a  Virgil,  a  Dante,  a  Michael  Angelo, 
a  Raphael,  a  Cavour  on  the  Italian  side,  or  the  blood 
that  coursed  the  veins  of  a  Disraeli,  of  a  Montefiore, 
of  a  Spinoza,  of  a  Mendelssohn  and  Rubenstein  on  the 
Jewish  side,  can  in  any  way  contaminate  ours ;  on  the 
contrary,  the  blending  will  develop  the  type  of  American 
manhood  which  is  to-day  the  admiration  of  the  civilized 
world. 

In  the  great  crisis  that  confronts  us  to-day,  the  great- 
est since  the  civil  war,  the  attempt  to  paralyze  business, 
stifle  industry  and  sacrifice  the  national  honor  by  the 
creation  of  a  dishonest  dollar,  the  ignorant  foreigner 
stands  like  a  wall  of  adamant,  in  the  cause  of  honest 
finance.  As  in  the  great  contest  over  slavery,  where 
they  stood  solidly  in  support  of  the  policy  of  President 
Lincoln,  they  are  now  united,  almost  in  solid  phalanx, 
in  maintaining  and  preserving  the  credit  of  the  country. 

The  thought  that  any  large  element  of  the  population 
of  the  country  is  willing  to-day  to  promote  a  private 
interest  at  the  expense  of  the  financial  peace  and  busi- 
ness prosperity  of  this  country,  and  bring  untold  ruin 
on  every  industry  and  into  every  home  in  our  land,  is 


FOURTH  OF  JULY,  1896.         23 

appalling;  yet  this  is  precisely  the  condition  of  mind 
into  which  a  large  section  of  our  country  in  the  South 
and  West  has  drifted. 

Last  year  there  were  held  in  the  savings  banks  in 
Massachusetts  $439,269,861.1 5,represented  by  1,302,479 
accounts,  or  an  average  of  $337.25  to  each  person. 
More  than  half  the  entire  population  of  the  State, 
including  men,  women  and  children,  are  represented  by 
accounts  in  these  institutions,  a  pretty  good  record  in  a 
State  where  nearly  sixty  per  cent  of  the  people  are 
either  foreign  born  or  of  foreign  parentage,  and  it 
seems  absurd  to  suppose  that  any  system  of  finance 
could  be  proposed  seriously  which  would  diminish  the 
purchasing  power  of  the  money  one-half.  These  de- 
posits represent  the  savings  of  years  of  toil  and  labor, 
the  only  reserve  in  case  of  accident  or  sickness  earned 
on  the  basis  of  a  dollar  calling  for  one  hundred  cents 
in  any  part  of  the  world.  However,  the  people  can 
always  be  trusted  in  times  of  peril,  and  I  have  con- 
fidence that  when  the  issue  is  fought,  the  sound,  sober 
sense  of  right  and  justice  will  prevail,  and  the  credit 
and  honor  of  the  American  people  be  maintained. 

We  are  celebrating  to-day  the  anniversary  of  a  strug- 
gle which  was  participated  in  by  men  of  many  races. 
If  we  examine  the  genealogy  of  the  patriots  of  the 
early  days  we  will  find  evidences  which  prove  that  the 
blood  of  all  nations  contributed  to  the  building  up  of 
this  great  nation.  Washington  sprang  from  English 
stock,  the  Adamses  from  Welsh,  Paul  Jones  and  Patrick 


24  ORATION. 

Henry  from  the  Scotch,  General  Sullivan,  Commodore 
Jack  Barry  and  Charles  Carroll  from  the  Irish,  Paul 
Revere,  Lafayette  and  John  Jay  from  the  French,  Steu- 
ben  from  the  German,  Kosciusko  and  Pulaski  from  the 
Polish,  General  Van  Rensselaer  from  the  Dutch. 

It  has  seemed  to  me,  therefore,  that  this  was  a  fitting 
occasion  upon  which  to  reiterate  and  defend  the  cherished 
principle,  established  in  and  through  that  struggle,  that 
not  birthplace,  not  origin,  but  civic  virtue  and  obedience 
to  the  laws  alone  shall  determine  the  standing  of  citi- 
zens in  this  country.  I  do  not  stand  for  a  ruinous  and 
blind  hospitality ;  but  I  do  insist  that  before  distinctions 
are  drawn,  the  inevitable  effect  of  which  is  to  stigmatize 
one  class  and  exalt  another,  the  logical  supports  upon 
which  these  distinctions  are  founded  shall  be  free  from 
gross  and  demonstrable  error. 

I  do  protest  against  this  latter-day  attempt  to  set 
people  against  people  and  to  preserve  those  frontier 
lines  of  European  nationality  which,  if  left  to  the 
action  of  natural  forces,  will  slowly  but  surely  oblit- 
erate themselves  here.  In  the  early  struggles  the  Pu- 
ritan in  New  England,  the  Catholic  in  Maryland,  the 
Dutchman  in  New  York  and  the  Huguenots  in  South 
Carolina  all  joined  in  contributing  to  the  magnificent 
result.  Driven  as  they  were  from  foreign  lands,  they 
had  endured  every  kind  of  persecution,  and  on  many  a 
bloody  battlefield  had  learned  to  imperil  their  lives  in  the 
cause  of  human  rights.  The  principles  of  free  govern- 
ment and  the  liberty  of  conscience  had  been  impressed 


FOUKTH  OF  JULY,  1896.         25 

upon  each  of  these  classes  in  the  different  lands  they 
had  fled  from,  and  when  these  same  ideas  were  attacked 
by  the  English  crown  they  united  in  the  defence  of  a 
common  principle. 

Let  it  not  be  said  then  of  our  generation  that  it  has 
proved  recreant  to  this  heritage  of  noble  sentiment. 
Let  it  not  be  said  of  us  that  petty  apprehensions  of 
remote  peril  have  persuaded  us  hastily  to  break  with  a 
tradition  supported  by  one  hundred  and  twenty  years  of 
trial.  Let  it  not  be  said  that  we  have  by  a  crusade  of 
disguised  proscription  narrowed  and  perverted  the 
meaning  of  Independence  Day.  Rather  let  it  be  said 
that,  beset  by  grave  trials,  as  all  must  admit  we  are, 
we  resisted  the  temptation,  however  plausibly  advanced, 
to  forego  a  received  principle  of  our  government,  pre- 
ferring at  whatever  cost  of  temporary  embarrassment 
that  our  flag  should  still  wave  over  a  nation  which  has 
been  so  long  "the  land  of  the  free,  the  home  of  the 
brave,  and  the  refuge  of  the  oppressed." 

Very  apt  do  the  beautiful  lines  of  Lowell  seem  to  me 
here : 

Though  taught,  by  fate  to  know  Jehovah's  plan 

That  only  manhood  ever  makes  a  man, 

And  where  free  latchstring  never  was  drawn  in 

Against  the  poorest  of  Adam's  kin. 

I  have  laid  before  you  in  general  lines,  my  fellow- 
citizens,  the  magnificent  services  rendered  in  the  devel- 
opment, of  this  nation  by  that  section  of  her  citizens, 
now  fully  twenty-five  million  strong,  who  are  agitated 


26  ORATIOX. 

against  and  stigmatized  in  certain  quarters,  under  the 
comprehensive  description,  foreigners.  I  have  shown 
you  that  if  a  balance  of  mutual  obligations  were 
struck,  we,  and  not  they,  are  the  debtors.  It  remains 
for  me  to  point  out  and  repeat  in  the  summary  man- 
ner which  my  limitations  of  time  impose,  the  specific 
charges,  supported  by  tables  of  specious  statistics,  which 
are  brought  against  them. 

Briefly,  then,  it  is  alleged  that  the  foreigner  has 
proved  himself  undesirable  because  he  is  exceptionally 
criminal,  because  he  furnishes  a  disproportionate  num- 
ber of  paupers  and  lunatics,  because  he  is  responsible 
for  political  corruption  in  large  cities,  and  because  his 
personal  habits  and  standard  of  living  are  comparatively 
low.  The  charge  of  pauperism  and  that  of  degradation 
of  habits,  which  is  its  necessary  consequence  and  concom- 
itant, is  ungenerous,  unrepublican  and  un-American. 
How  long  since  in  this  country  has  it  been  a  legitimate 
reproach  to  any  man  that  he  is  poor?  And  who,  I 
would  ask,  bears  the  heavier  responsibility  for  the 
squalor  and  misery  which  darken  the  crowded  sections 
of  our  large  cities  —  the  foreign  occupant  or  the  native 
landlord  of  those  blots  upon  civilization,  the  tenement 
houses  ? 

The  percentages  of  lunacy  and  crime  among  the 
foreign-born  are,  it  is  true,  apparently  high.  But  this 
excess  is  only  apparent,  for  both  lunacy  and  crime  are 
strictly  manifestations  of  adult  life,  so  that  a  population, 
composed  largely  of  adults,  like  our  foreign-born  popu- 


FOURTH  OF  JULY,  1896.         27 

lation,  is,  so  to  speak,  arithmetically  selected  to  show  a 
high  artificial  proportion  of  lunatics  and  criminals. 

As  to  the  vague  charge  of  political  laxity,  I  will  con- 
tent myself  with  saying  that  recent  disclosures  in  regard 
to  our  county  affairs  and  the  subserviency  to  corporate 
influence  of  a  Senate,  assuredly  not  foreign  in  its  mem- 
bership, in  the  matter  of  free  transfers  for  the  people 
of  Boston  are  sufficient  to  offset  whatever  little  of  con- 
crete evidence  the  assailant  of  the  foreigner  has  conde- 
scended to  offer  on  this  score. 

The  city  of  Boston  only  a  few  days  ago  dedicated  a 
magnificent  memorial  to  the  noble  immigrant,  poet  and 
patriot,  John  Boyle  O'Reilly.  It  stands  in  one  of  our 
beautiful  public  squares,  and  is  an  ornament  and  mas- 
terpiece of  its  kind.  It  not  only  commemorates  the 
virtue  of  a  great  soul,  but  also  emphasizes  the  fact 
that  our  so-called  foreign  citizens  are  equally  interested 
in  adorning  our  city  with  the  most  beautiful  creations 
of  art  and  sculpture.  It  serves  as  another  instance  of 
the  broad  Americanism  of  all  classes.  This  is  as  it 
should  be. 

We  should  strive  to  make  her  beautiful  as  well  as 
great.  Let  her  squares  and  statues  and  public  build- 
ings be  inspirations  to  the  loftiest  conceptions  of  artistic 
truth  and  beauty,  just  as  the  crumbling  landmarks  in 
her  older  sections  stand  daily  incentives  to  the  intensest 
spirit  of  patriotism.  In  this  connection  it  is  also  pleas- 
ing to  learn  of  the  action,  last  week,  of  the  city  govern- 
ment in  appropriating  funds  for  a  statue  of  Gen.  Joseph 
Warren. 


28  ORATION. 

A  movement  is  on  foot  also,  which  should  receive  en- 
couragement, for  placing  on  Park-street  Church  a 
tablet,  commemorating  the  fact  that  within  those  walls 
for  the  first  time  resounded  the  strains  of  America's 
national  anthem.  Hard  by,  as  an  additional  evidence 
of  increased  patriotic  interest  in  our  city,  we  witness 
this  week  the  completion  of  a  memorial  shaft  over  the 
too-long  neglected  grave  of  John  Hancock.  Close  by 
him  in  splendid  companionship,  lie  Bowdoin  and  Fan- 
euil  and  Paul  Revere.  Further  on,  almost  side  by  side 
with  the  victims  of  the  horrid  massacre,  "  whose  dead 
be  commemorated,"  lie  the  bones  of  Sam  Adams.  His 
tomb  extends  out  below  the  sidewalk,  under  the  hurry- 
ing feet  of  thousands,  who  unknowingly  press  on  over 
the  head  of  Boston's  greatest  son. 

The  safety  and  perpetuity  of  this  republic  has  more 
to  fear  from  the  lack  of  public  spirit  on  the  part  of  its 
citizens  than  from  any  influx  of  immigration,  no  mat- 
ter how  large.  There  should  be  more  of  that  patriotic 
feeling  which  urges  noble  minds  to  sacrifice  private  in- 
terest for  the  public  good.  This  lack  of  sense  of  public 
duty  was  forcibly  brought  to  my  mind  the  other  day, 
when  I  noticed  in  the  public  press  an  account  of  a 
movement  by  some  of  the  business  men  of  Boston  to  re- 
frain from  putting  then*  names  on  the  voting  list  so  as 
to  avoid  jury  service.  I  was  very  much  surprised  at 
this  state  of  affairs,  as  no  nobler  duty  devolves  upon 
the  citizen  than  that  of  serving  equally  with  the  judge 
as  the  arbiter  in  differences  between  man  and  man,  and 
in  meting  out  exact  justice  to  all. 


FOURTH  OF  JULY,  1896.  29 

It  is  a  noble  privilege,  and  one  of  the  priceless  heritages 
of  a  free  country,  to  try  a  man  by  a  jury  of  his  peers, 
and  no  citizen  should  be  so  lacking  in  patriotism  and  in 
devotion  to  public  service  as  to  refuse  his  advice  and 
judgment  at  prescribed  periods.  In  a  government  of 
which  every  citizen  is  an  essential  part  there  should  be 
no  evasion  of  duty.  The  proper  administration  of  our 
whole  system  of  government  depends  upon  the  careful 
and  unscrupulous  exercise  by  all  the  people  of  every 
political  function. 

To-day  at  high  noon  another  star  is  added  to  our  flag, 
another  State  is  officially  recognized  on  the  glorious 
banner  of  the  stars  and  stripes.  Originally  thirteen, 
now  forty-five  grand  Commonwealths.  The  same  con- 
stitution which  guided  the  destinies  of  the  thirteen 
colonies,  amended  by  the  bill  of  rights  and  the  acknowl- 
edgment of  the  equality  of  all  men  before  the  law,  now 
guards  the  safety  and  prosperity  of  the  forty-five. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  present  century  seven  fam- 
ilies guided  the  destinies  of  as  many  kingdoms  in  Italy, 
but  six  of  them  have  seen  their  thrones  overturned  and 
their  countries  disappear  from  the  map  of  Europe. 
Spain  has  seen  tremendous  changes,  and  to-day  is  being 
besought  by  the  civilized  world  to  give  freedom  and  inde- 
pendence to  the  great  island  of  Cuba.  The  princes  of  the 
German  empire,  after  struggles  which  engaged  the  at- 
tention of  the  civilized  world,  have  conceded  a  constitu- 
tion for  their  people,  and  have  divided  with  them  the 
power  so  arbitrarily  wielded  by  Maria  Theresa  and 


30  ORATION. 

Frederick  the  Great.  Even  in  England  marvellous 
changes  have  taken  place,  and  the  authority  of  the 
crown  has  devolved  upon  ministers  who  hold  office  sub- 
ject to  the  will  of  the  people,  and  equal  powers  with 
the  House'  of  Lords  have  been  vested  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  who  are  chosen  by  the  people  from  among 
the  people. 

During  all  this  time  our  government  has  weathered 
every  crisis,  has  adapted  itself  to  every  condition,  has 
assimilated  diverse  nationalities  with  alien  customs  and 
languages,  and  has  succeeded  in  winning  their  passion- 
ate love  and  loyalty,  and  developed  in  them  the  true 
spirit  of  our  American  institutions. 

As  we  gaze  around  this  hall,  on  the  paintings  of 
Massachusetts'  illustrious  sons,  we  recognize  the  fact 
that  no  one  age  can  claim  a  monopoly  in  the  great  men 
she  has  given  to  the  nation.  During  the  wiiole  one 
hundred  and  twenty  year's  of  the  nation's  life  her  sons 
have  contributed  their  share  to  her  glory  and  grandeur. 

Hancock  and  Adams  and  Warren  gave  way  to  Ever- 
ett and  Choate,  Burlingame  and  Andrew,  Sumner  and 
Wilson,  Phillips  and  Hoar.  Her  greatest  son,  whose 
august  presence  is  fittingly  portrayed  in  the  magnificent 
painting  hung  over  the  rostrum,  was  too  renowned  for 
the  environment  of  any  State  but  Massachusetts.  The 
ablest  supporter  and  defender  of  the  constitution,  his 
voice  and  name  were  known  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific  as  the  great  bulwark  of  our  national  independ- 
ence, and  the  recognized  champion  of  the  integrity  and 


FOURTH  OF  JULY,  1896.         31 

pepetuity  of  the  American  republic.  The  living  voice 
is  silent  in  the  grave,  but  as  we  gaze  on  this  marvellous 
picture  we  can  almost  hear  those  beautiful  words  of 
eulogy  on  his  native  State,  uttered  in  the  famous  debate 
with  Hayne,  portrayed  in  this  painting,  in  which  he 
said; 

"  Mr.  President,  I  shall  enter  on  no  encomium  upon 
Massachusetts ;  she  needs  none.  There  she  is.  Behold 
her,  and  judge  for  yourselves.  There  is  her  history ; 
the  world  knows  it  by  heart.  The  past,  at  least,  is  se- 
cure. There  is  Boston  and  Concord  and  Lexington  and 
Bunker  Hill ;  and  there  they  will  remain  forever.  The 
bones  of  her  sons,  falling  in  the  great  struggle  for  inde- 
pendence, now  lie  mingled  with  the  soil  of  every  State 
from  New  England  to  Georgia ;  and  there  they  will  lie 
forever."  And 

"  Sir,  where  American  liberty  raised  its  first  voice, 
and  sustained,  there  it  still  lives,  in  the  strength  of  its 
manhood  and  full  of  its  original  spirit." 

And  later  on  in  that  same  address,  his  noble  tribute 
to  the  union  is  a  fitting  end  to  the  theme  of  every 
Fourth  of  July  orator  : 

"While  the  Union  lasts,  we  have  high,  exciting, 
gratifying  prospects  spread  out  before  us,  for  us  and  our 
children.  Beyond  that  I  seek  not  to  penetrate  the  veil. 
God  grant  that  in  my  day,  at  least,  that  curtain  may 
not  rise !  God  grant  that  on  my  vision  never  may  be 
opened  what  lies  beyond !  When  my  eyes  shall  be 
turned  to  behold  for  the  last  time  the  sun  in  heaven, 


32  ORATION. 

may  I  not  see  him  shining  on  the  broken  and  dishonored 
fragments  of  a  once  glorious  union;  on  States  dis- 
severed, discordant,  belligerent ;  on  a  land  rent  with 
civil  feuds,  or  drenched,  it  may  be,  in  fraternal  blood ! 
Let  their  last  feeble  and  lingering  glance  rather  behold 
the  glorious  ensign  of  the  republic,  now  known  and 
honored  throughout  the  earth,  still  full  high  ad- 
vanced, its  arms  and  trophies  streaming  in  their  original 
lustre,  not  a  stripe  erased  or  polluted,  not  a  single  star 
obscured,  bearing  for  its  motto,  no  such  miserable  inter- 
rogatory as,  i  What  is  all  this  worth '  ?  nor  those  words 
of  delusion  and  folly,  i  Liberty  first  and  union  after- 
wards,' but  everywhere  spread  all  over  in  characters  of 
living  light,  blazing  on  all  its  ample  folds,  as  they  float 
over  the  land,  and  in  every  wind  under  the  whole 
heaven,  that  other  sentiment,  dear  to  every  true  Ameri- 
can heart,  'Liberty  and  Union  now  and  forever,  one 
and  inseparable.' " 


A    LIST 


BOSTON    MUNICIPAL    ORATORS. 


BY  C.  W.  ERNST. 


BOSTON    ORATORS 

APPOINTED  BY  THE  MUNICIPAL  AUTHORITIES. 


For  the  Anniversary  of  the  Boston  Massacre,  March  5,  1770. 

NOTE.  —  The  Fifth-of-March  orations  were  published  in  handsome  quarto  editions, 
now  very  scarce  ;  also  collected  in  book  form  in  1785,  and  again  in  1807.  The  oration 
of  1776  was  delivered  in  Watertown. 

1771.  —  LOVELL,  JAMES. 

1772. — WARREN,  JOSEPH. 

1 773 .  —  CHURCH,  BENJAMIN. 

1774. — HANCOCK,  JOHN.* 

1775.  —  WARREN,  JOSEPH. 

1776. — THACHER,  PETER. 

1777. — HIGHBORN,  BENJAMIN. 

1778. — AUSTIN,  JONATHAN  WILLIAMS. 

1779. — TUDOR,  WILLIAM. 

1780. — MASON,  JONATHAN,  JUN. 

1781. — DAWES,  THOMAS,  JUN. 

1782.  —  MINOT,  GEORGE  RICHARDS. 

1783.— WELSH,  THOMAS. 


For  the  Anniversary  of  National  Independence,  July  4,  1776. 

NOTE.  —  A  collected  edition,  or  a  full  collection,  of  these  orations  has  not  been  made. 
For  the  names  of  the  orators,  as  officially  printed  on  the  title  pages  of  the  orations, 
see  the  Municipal  Register  of  1890. 

1783.— WARREN,  JOHN.1 
1784. — HIGHBORN,  BENJAMIN. 
1785.  —  GARDNER,  JOHN. 

a  Reprinted  in  Newport,  R.I.,  1774,  8vo,  19  pp. 

1  Reprinted  in  Warren's  Life.  The  orations  of  1783  to  1786  were  published  in  large 
quarto  ;  the  oration  of  1787  appeared  in  octavo  ;  the  oration  of  1788  was  printed  in 
small  quarto  ;  all  succeeding  orations  appeared  in  octavo,  with  the  exceptions  stated 
under  1863  and  1876. 


36  APPENDIX. 

1786.  —  AUSTIN,  JONATHAN  LOBING. 
1787. —  DA  WES,  THOMAS,  JUN. 
1788.  —  OTIS,  HARRISON  GRAY. 
1789. —  STILLMAN,  SAMUEL. 

1790.  —  GBAY,  EDWAED. 

1791.  —  CRAFTS,  THOMAS,  JUN. 

1792.  —  BLAKE,  JOSEPH,  JuN.2 

1793.  —  ADAMS,  JOHN  QuiNCY.2 

1794.  —  PHILLIPS,  JOHN. 

1795.  —  BLAKE,  GEORGE. 

1796.  —  LATHROP,  JOHN,  JUN. 

1797.  —  CALLENDER,  JOHN. 

1798.  —  QUINCY,    JOSIAH.2'  8 

1799.  —  LOWELL,  JOHN,  JuN.2 

1800.  —  HALL,  JOSEPH. 

1801.  —  PAINE,  CHARLES. 
1802. —  EMERSON,  WILLIAM. 

1803.  —  SULLIVAN,  WILLIAM. 

1804.  —  DANFORTH,  TnoMAS.2 

1805.  —  DUTTON,  WARREN. 

1806.  —  CHANNING,  FRANCIS  DANA.* 

1807.  — THACHER,  PETER.2'6 

1808.  —  RITCHIE,  ANDREW,  JUN.Z 

1809.  — TUDOR,  WILLIAM,  JuN.2 

1810.  —  TOWNSEND,  ALEXANDER. 

1811.  —  SAVAGE,  JAMES.2 

1812.  —  POLLARD,  BENJAMIN.* 

1818.  —  LIVERMORE,  EDWARD  ST.  LOE. 

2  Passed  to  a  second  edition. 

8  Delivered  another  oration  in  1826.  Quincy's  oration  of  1798  was  reprinted,  also, 
in  Philadelphia. 

«  Not  printed. 

5  On  February  26, 1811,  Peter  Thacher's  name  was  changed  to  Peter  Oxenbridge 
Thacher.  (List  of  Persons  whose  Names  have  been  Changed  in  Massachusetts,  1780- 
1892,  p.  21.) 


APPENDIX.  37 

1814.  —  WHIT  WELL  ,  BENJAMIN  . 

1815.  —  SHAW,  LEMUEL.. 

1816.  —  S  ULLI v AN  ,  GEORGE  . 2 

1817.  —  CHANNING,  EDWABD  TYRREL. 

1818.  —  GRAY,  FRANCIS -GALLEY. 

1819.  —  DEXTER,  FRANKLIN. 
1820. — LYMAN,  THEODORE,  JUN. 
1821. — LORING,  CHARLES  GREELY.2 

1822.  —  GRAY,  JOHN  CHIPMAN. 

1823.  —  CURTIS,  CHARLES  PELHAM.2 
1824. — BASSETT,  FRANCIS. 

1825.  —  SPRAGUE,  CHARLES. 6 

1826.  —  QUINCY,  JosiAH.7 

1827.  —  MASON,  WILLIAM  POWELL. 

1 828.  —  SUMNER,  BRADFORD. . 

1829.  —  AUSTIN  ,  JAMES  TRECOTHICK  . 

1830.  —  EVERETT,  ALEXANDER  HILL. 

1831.  —  PALFREY,  JOHN  GORHAM. 

1832.  —  QUINCY,  JOSIAH,  JUN. 

1833. — PRESCOTT,  EDWARD  GOLDSBOROUGH. 
1834. — FAY,  RICHARD  SULLIVAN. 
1835. — HILLARD,  GEORGE  STILLMAN. 
1836. — KINSMAN,  HENRY  WILLIS. 

1837.  —  CHAPMAN,  JONATHAN. 

1838.  —  WINSLOW,  HUBBARD.     "The  Means  of  the  Per- 

petuity and  Prosperity  of  our  Republic." 

1839.  —  AUSTIN,  IVERS  JAMES. 

1840.  —  POWER,  THOMAS. 

1841.  —  CURTIS,  GEORGE  TICKNOR.S     "  The  True  Uses  of 

American  Revolutionary  History."  8 
1842.— MANN,  HORACE.® 
1843. — ADAMS,  CHARLES  FRANCIS. 

8  Six  editions  up  to  1831.    Reprinted  also  in  his  Life  and  Letters. 
7  Reprinted  in  his  Municipal  History  of  Boston.    See  1798. 


38  APPENDIX. 

1844.  —  CHANDLER,  PELEG  WHITMAN.     "The  Morals  of 

Freedom." 

1845.  —  SUMNER,  CHARLES.10      "The  True  Grandeur  of 

Nations." 

1846.  —  WEBSTER,  FLETCHER. 

1847.  —  CART,  THOMAS  GREAVES. 

1848.  —  GILES,  JOEL.     "Practical  Liberty." 

1849.  —  GREENOUGH,  WILLIAM  WHIT  WELL.     "The  Con- 

quering Republic." 

1850.  —  WHIPPLE,  EDWIN  PERCY."     "Washington  and 

the  Principles  of  the  Revolution." 

1851.  —  RUSSELL,  CHARLES  THEODORE. 

1852.  —  KING,  THOMAS  STARR.12    "The  Organization  of 

Liberty  on  the  Western  Continent."12 

1853.  —  BIGELOW,  TIMOTHY. 13 

1854.  —  STONE,  ANDREW  LEETE.2 

1855.  —  MINER,  ALONZO  AMES. 

1856.  —  PARKER,   EDWARD   GRIFFIN.     "The   Lesson  of 

'76  to  the  Men  of  '56." 

1857.  —  ALGER,  WILLIAM  ROUNSEVILLE."  "The  Genius 

and  Posture  of  America." 

1858.  —  HOLMES,  JOHN  SoMERS.2 

1859.  —  STJMNER,  GEORGE.18 

1860.  —  EVERETT,  EDWARD. 

1861.  —  PARSONS,  THEOPHILUS. 

1862.  — CURTIS,  GEORGE  TICKNOR.® 

1863.  —  HOLMES,  OLIVER  WENDELL." 

1864.  —  RUSSELL,  THOMAS. 

8  Delivered  another  oration  in  1862. 

9  There  are  five  editions  ;  only  one  by  the  City. 

10  Passed  through  three  editions  in  Boston  and  one  in  London,  and  was  answered 
in  a  pamphlet,  Remarks  upon  an  Oration  delivered  by  Charles  Sumner  ....  July 
4th,  1845.  By  a  Citizen  of  Boston.  See  Memoir  and  Letters  of  Charles  Suinner,  by 
Edward  L.  Pierce,  vol.  ii.  337-384. 

"  There  is  a  second  edition.    (Boston :  Ticknor,  Reed  &  Fields.    1850.    49  pp.  12°.) 

"  First  published  by  the  City  to  1892. 

13  This  and  a  number  of  the  succeeding  orations,  up  to  1861,  contain  the  speeches, 
toasts,  etc.,  of  the  City  dinner  usually  given  in  Faneuil  Hall  cm  the  Fourth  of  July. 


APPENDIX.  39 

1865.  —  MANNING,     JACOB     MERRILL.      "Peace     under 

Liberty." 

1866.  —  LOTHROP,  SAMUEL  KIRKLAND. 

1867.  —  HEPWORTH,  GEORGE  HUGHES. 

1868.  —  ELIOT,  SAMUEL.      "The  Functions  of  a  City." 

1869.  —  MORTON  ELLIS  WESLEY. 

1870.  —  EVERETT,  WILLIAM. 

1871.  —  SARGENT,  HORACE  BINNEY. 

1872.  —  ADAMS,  CHARLES  FRANCIS,  JUN. 

1873.  —  WARE,  JOHN  FOTHERGILL  WATERHOUSE. 

1874.  —  FROTHINGHAM,  RICHARD. 

1875.  —  CLARKE,  JAMES  FREEMAN. 

1876.  —  WINTHROP,  ROBERT  CHARLES." 

1877.  —  WARREN,  WILLIAM  WIRT. 

1878.  —  HEALY,  JOSEPH. 

1879.  —  LODGE,  HENRY  CABOT. 

1880.  —  SMITH,  ROBERT  DicKSON.18 

1881.  —  WARREN,  GEORGE  WASHINGTON.    "Our  Repub- 

lic—  Liberty  and  Equality  Founded  on  Law." 

1882.  —  LONG,  JOHN  DAVIS. 

1883.  —  CARPENTER,    HENRY    BERNARD.       "American 

Character  and  Influence." 

1884.  —  SHEPARD,  HARVEY  NEWTON. 

1885.  —  GARGAN,  THOMAS  JOHN. 

i*  Probably  four  editions  were  printed  in  1857.  (Boston  :  Office  Boston  Daily  Bee. 
60  pp.)  Not  until  November  22, 1864,  was  Mr.  Alger  asked  by  the  City  to  furnish  a 
copy  for  publication.  He  granted  the  request,  and  the  first  official  edition  (J.  E.  Far- 
well  &  Co.,  1864.  53  pp.)  was  then  issued.  It  lacks  the  interesting  preface  and  appendix 
of  the  early  editions. 

«  There  is  another  edition.  (Boston  :  Ticknor  &  Fields,  1859.  69  pp.)  A  third 
(Boston  :  Rockwell  &  Churchill,  1882.  46  pp.)  omits  the  dinner  at  Faneuil  Hall,  the 
correspondence  and  events  of  the  celebration. 

'«  There  is  a  preliminary  edition  of  twelve  copies.  (J.  E.  Farwell  &  Co.,  1863.  (7), 
71  pp.)  It  is  "  the  first  draft  of  the  author's  address,  turned  into  larger,  legible  type, 
for  the  sole  purpose  of  rendering  easier  its  public  delivery."  It  was  done  by  "the 
liberality  of  the  City  Authorities,"  and  is,  typographically,  the  handsomest  of  these 
orations.  This  resulted  in  the  large-paper  75-page  edition,  printed  from  the  same 
type  as  the  71-page  edition,  but  modified  by  the  author.  It  is  printed  "  by  order  of  the 
Common  Council."  The  regular  edition  is  in  60  pp.,  octavo  size. 


40  APPENDIX. 

1886.  —  WILLIAMS,  GEORGE  FREDERICK. 

1887.  —  FITZGERALD,  JOHN  EDWARD. 

1888.  —  DILLAWAY,  WILLIAM  EDWARD  LOVELL. 

1889. —  SWIFT,  JOHN  LINDSAY."    "The  American  Citi- 

izen." 
1890. —  PILLSBURY,  ALBERT  ENOCH.     "Public  Spirit." 

1891.  — QUINCY,  JosiAH.20     "The  Coming  Peace." 

1892.  —  MURPHY,  JOHN  ROBERT. 

1893.  —  PUTNAM,    HENRY    WARE.      "The    Mission    of 

Our  People." 

1894.  —  O'NEIL,  JOSEPH  HENRY. 

1895.  —  BERLE,  ADOLPH  AUGUSTUS.    "The  Constitution 

and  the  Citizen." 

1896.  —  FITZGERALD,  JOHN  FRANCIS. 

17  There  is  a  large  paper  edition  of  fifty  copies  printed  from  this  type,  and  also  an 
edition  from  the  press  of  John  Wilson  &  Son,  1876.    55  pp.    8°. 

18  On  Samuel  Adams,  a  statue  of  whom,  by  Miss  Anne  Whitney,  had  just  been 
completed  for  the  City.    A  photograph  of  the  statute  is  added. 

»  Contains  a  bibliography  of  Boston  Fourth  of  July  orations,  from  1783  to  1889, 
inclusive,  compiled  by  Lindsay  Swift,  of  the  Boston  Public  Library. 
20  Reprinted  by  the  American  Peace  Society. 


